Fiona was down with sinusitis , Miles was down with a bug and Clifford was ....... down ......... so I headed off on my own for a mid morning walk around Durham Woods , River Wear and Durham  City. Whilst staring   at couple of Little Grebes a nice man with a whippet got talking to me about  local  wildlife and his fine whippet. He also told me his previous whippet  that ran off and was flattened on the A1(M) and yet again I  inwardly groaned at the fact that when I get talking to virtually anyone in the North East I often get more than I bargained for . I like that  but a flattened whippet stuck in my mind for a little while! Being passed by many young folk jogging and running, I strolled into the City where there was a food fair in the Cathedral and a 50 meter queue to get in . Using  a bit of local knowledge  I went through the woods around the back of the Cathedral to avoid the queue. I said prayers in St Cuthberts Shrine at  the East End which was  nice because there were several Christian folk doing the same thing . On the way back to the car , walking along the street , deep in thought ,I had the strange experience of a young woman appearing in front of  me in pyjamas . At first I thought it was a vision and resisted the temptation to poke her in the ribs to make sure she was real, simultaneously thinking that she must be , because if I was going to have a vision of a woman in pyjamas on a Durham street it would be in the 55+ age range . Anyway, she was real , vacant looking , staring down the street and next to an open door so this being a student town and me being a   gentleman I smiled and walked by . On the way back to Darlington the clouds  were  coming over and it felt like it was going to snow . Fiona had perked up when I got  back . Hooray. Well right now , the tea is nearly cooked , I'm feeling at one with the world and a great family feeding session  watching  Lord of the Rings   is about to happen . Yippee!